KlBBUTZIM «We were also concemed with the problem of the women members and their place in the productive sector ... Yosef (Bussel) endeavoured to change the pattern of the economy so tha.t fema.le members would be freed from the narrow confines of housework ... Bussel pressed for the adoption of the principle of joint care of the children . . . since it would free the women-mother, who could be used for all other kinds of work ... » Communal child care was hailed as the kibbutz solution for women's emancipation. However, purely economic considerations (i.e. being able to work an eight hour day) are insuf!icient guarantees of personal liberation. Questions of status and power, which are integral to any struggle for equality, reach intci all dimensions of action. While communal child care facilities free them to work, job opportunities for kibbutz women are prlmarily typical female service roles but on a public rather than private level. Almost all kibbutz women work ln the kitchen, laundry, lroning or child-care facilities. Since persona! status in the kibbutz is positively correlated with productive (income-producing) job roles, the service branch inherent• ly offers less prestige. Yoninah Talmon, the kibbutz sociologist, reports «women are less attracted to lite ln the kibbutz (than men) and feel it more difficult to adjust» (16). On this point a kibbutznik women friend once asked: «What 1s liberating about washing clothes for four hundred instead of four?» The 'politics of reproduction' also bears a heavy weight on the women of the kibbutz. Continuation of 'Wartare State' preoccupe.tions of the entire Israeli nation puts pressure on women to produce as many children as possible for national needs - this in addition to the labour power needs of the local kibbutz community. Much pressure is placed on young women to marry ·young and reproduœ as quickly as feasible. A single woman of even 23 is looked upon with a mixture of suspicion and pity. Yoninah Talmon's research, ties discouragement of population control and emphasis of the mother-role of women in the kibbutzim to its Israeli·State fun<> tion (17): «We need children not only to guarantee our own (kibbutz) future, we must put part of our second genera.tion at the disposal of the State, the army, guidance of new Immigrants, border settl&- ments, youth movements - we will be able to participe.te in ail that only if we have many children.» But even when a women bears children the sense of fulfillment is distorted. The reality of death, ever present in Israeli society, pervades even the moment of birth: if a boy is bom, a wish is ma.de that he should not be kllled ln the war; If a girl, that her children (16) Yoninah Talmon, Famlly and Communlty ln the Klbbuts, Harvard Univers!~ Press, Cambridge, Mass. 1972. 07) Talmon, op. c1t. Eisenstadt, op. clt. 133
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